Monday, February 25, 2008

Literary Edge 2

Poem

Kamatipura

The nocturnal porcupine reclines hereLike an alluring grey bouquetWearing the syphilitic sores of centuriesPushing the calendar awayForever lost in its own dreamsMan’s lost his speech His god’s a shitting skeletonWill this void ever find a voice, become a voice?If you wish, keep an iron eye on it to watchIf there’s a tear in it, freeze it and save it tooJust looking at its alluring form, one goes berserkThe porcupine wakes up with a startAttacks you with its sharp aroused bristlesWounds you all over, through and throughAs the night gets ready for its bridegroom, wounds begin to blossomUnending oceans of flowers roll out Peacocks continually dance and mateThis is hellThis is a swirling vortexThis is an ugly agonyThis is pain wearing a dancer’s ankletsShed your skin, shed your skin from its very rootsSkin yourselfLet these poisoned everlasting wombs become disembodied.Let not this numbed ball of flesh sprout limbsTaste thisPotassium cyanide!As you die at the infinitesimal fraction of a second,Write down the small ‘s’ that’s being forever lowered.Here queue up they who want to tastePoison’s sweet or salt flavourDeath gathers here, as do words,In just a minute, it will start pouring here.O Kamatipura,Tucking all seasons under your armpitYou squat in the mud hereI go beyond all the pleasures and pains of whoring and waitFor your lotus to bloom.— A lotus in the mud. Namdeo Dhasal, 1981 (translated by Dilip Chitre, 2007)Namdeo Laxman Dhasal (b. February 15, 1949) is a Marathi writer and Dalit activist. He was one of the founders of the Dalit Panther movement in 1972. Although he speaks as a Dalit, his treatment of themes like exploitation, oppression and violence transcends caste barriers.Dhasal spent his early childhood years living in a Bombay slum adjoining Kamatipura, Asia’s largest red-light district. This poem in his characteristic style, presents a stark and violent portrait of a part of Mumbai’s sordid underbelly. A new collection of Dhasal’s poetry called Namdeo Dhasal: Poet of the Underworld, Poems 1972–2006 has recently been published by NAVAYANA.

Responses

Dear friends,Me and some of my friends would like to know a certain thing : who was the high caste bengali student who didnt want a Dalit for a room mate.As far as we think, when someone chooses their room mate, what they see is if they can get along well with each other. Did anyone ask someone his/her caste while doing so?A reply will be appreciated.Thank you, Shukti

From the Editor:As far as we think, when someone chooses their room mate, what they see is if they can get along well with each other. Did anyone ask someone his/her caste while doing so?A reply: As far as the editors are concerned, we sincerely do not know of any such case where a bengali upper caste student refusing to share rooms with a Bengali Dalit student 'citing' (if one would really cite it) the particularity of caste differences. but that is definitely not a claim made in the survey report. let us take a look at was being claimed in the report:We share rooms with people whom we are comfortable with. That is definitely true. *But a survey of shared rooms in the 3 hostels indicates that in over 70% of the shared rooms, the roommates are of the same caste.* Though choice of roommate may be made on the basis of linguistic or religious or course wise uniformity, it remains a question whether a Bengali Higher caste student (to take one example) would share a room with another Bengali Dalit student. Cultural differences are significant in such choices but these differences might just preclude caste differences too.the example is clearly a hypothetical situation drawn up to explicate the point that among people who are obviously sharing rooms with people from the same linguistic community, there is a peculiarity of caste uniformity observed. again as we choose roommates with whom we are comfortable with or as shukti put it, we "get along well with", the 'comfort' or 'getting along well with' is definitely a quotient of our situated and historical realities. that would be why a Bengali student necessarily shares rooms with a Bengali student or majority of Arabic participants share rooms with each other. so much as we continue denying it presently, (and this is exactly what we were planning to counter when we claimed to attack caste neutrality in the journal) the claim made in the survey report was specifically addressed to the fact that the getting along well with is not as innocent as it seems. this yet again does not indicate a proliferation of caste considerations at the level of primary intentionality in choosing roommates. that was clearly not the point made and this does not require explication, it was more than obvious from the language. but the fact that our 'traditional' practices seem to be repeated even in our 'modern' setups requires serious analysis and thought if we are really to track caste or any other inequality in its real sites and contexts which seem to have a certain capacity of reiterability as is clear from our present conditions-there is no Dalit professor or 40%-50% of group D employees are Dalits.We ask the rest of the class if they really can think of any 'concrete' reason as to why such a huge majority of shared rooms in the university have people from the same caste?if the unconscious cannot be brought to test, criticism can hardly proceed after a point. that in itself is a difficult task. perhaps a few people we have read might help us to deal with this. We hope this is a satisfactory reply. we can off-course take the qustion to the next class and bring out the 'uglier' dimesions. we, the editors would be more than happy to respond and it also bears upon us to do so.Thanks, GeetanjaliRia JimmyRitamAsmita.

Thank you for the reply.If there is proper study to back up the statement, it is fine. I was just curious because many of the people I know here have roommates who are not from the same caste, or same linguistic or cultural community, and sometimes not from the same religion. But since the situation is hypothetical, I would like to state that it becomes a bit complicated for us to understand the statement without an explaination.Caste consciousness may be importatnt in some cases, but I think what really matters is a common course or a common language, or geographical proximity. Some of the people I know come from the same linguistic community yet have a huge difference in lifestyle and opinions. An M.A. english student will naturally look for an M.A. participant as a roommate. As for the case of Arabic, I think since most of them come from one particular religion, their roommates obviously will be Muslims.I guess what matters is the friends circle. Probably that is why not all people who belong to the same community hang out together.I understand that the aim of the survey was to say that "choosing a roommate is not an innocent phenomenon." But in order to genralize a hypothetical situation, I think other perspectives should also be considered. It is also important taht facts should be made available(cite specific examples, who stays with whom and what are their castes.)I think the survey/study should be made available to end such confusions. If we can have a look at it, it will help us to clarify. It is not a request from me but from many of my friends who find it difficult to agree with the claims. With specific examples, the claims can be justified.Thanks,Shukti